Blue Devil Golf Club
Imagine a painter forced to wait three years to see his masterpiece completed. That's the feeling Calgary golf architects Gary Browning and Wade Horrocks have had since 2009 when the Shaw family, owners of Blue Devil Golf Club in south Calgary, halted the building of their design fore the course.
The downturn in the economy and a glut of local private golf-course inventory meant that for the past three years, 13 holes at Blue Devil sat completed, waiting for someone to finish the Browning / Horrocks layout. While the holes were playable, no one was allowed to even drop a golf ball on the fairways or greens.
That wait ended this spring when Calgary golf course owner Scott Atkinson, who runs HeatherGlen and The Links of Glen Eagles in the area, purchased Blue Devil from the Shaw family. Atkinson intends for Blue Devil to be run as a public facility rather than a private club as the Shaws originally intended.
The remaining five holes were sodded and the greens prepared this summer, when fine weather in July and August helped get the course opened for play. A practice area and a short nine-hole course, the L'il Devil, are now under construction with plans calling for a possible expansion to 18 holes for the Devil.
Recently, Browning and Horrocks, who've also done work on Stewart Creek and nearby Priddis Greens, had their first chance to play their design after the long delay in completing Blue Devil. The original land on a flood plain near the Bow River, says Browning, "was as flat as a skillet" when they first began moving earth to create the contours of the layout.
In fact, they moved 1.5 million metres of soil to change the site its the new image with elevated tee boxes and greens running down into contoured fairways. "We wanted the changes in elevation on the holes to promote a flowing look," says Browning. Large ponds were dug out to hold water for the course irrigation.
On this early morning, with dew still on the grass, it's hard to believe that the land ever looked any other way. "We want it to look hard but play easy," says Horrocks as he looks down the first fairway at the course. "Our goal is to create courses that people want to play again, not severe tests that leave them discouraged."
Blue Devil plays a lot like a resort course in that regard, with wide landing areas and receiving fairways. But don't be fooled by playability after the first shot. One of the advantages of the Shaws' beneficence was a collection of deep, challenging bunkers throughout the design.
The No. 1 stroke hole is the par-5 15th, playing a healthy 629 yards from the tips. A drive must thread two large bunkers lining the hole and the green juts into a large pond, requiring guts if you go in two. The 362-yard No. 6 is a driveable par-4 down-wind that asks golfers to choose how much of a gaping pond to cut off for the approach. A fine par-3, the 215-yard No. 16 is bordered on the left by water and protected by a yawning front bunker.
The round over, both men are bittersweet about the experience of finally seeing their dream realized. "It's been a tough time since we began building," says Browning. "There were lots of details that we fought to have put into the course. Seeing it today playing so well at last was great." Horrocks, a fine player in his own rite, was pleased at how well the new greens were growing in. "They rolled very true for having been only installed so recently."
Browning and Horrocks have another course design, a sister course for the excellent Stewart Creek in Canmore, Alta., lying unused and grown-over an hour away. It is looking for an owner to restore it to playing condition the way Blue Devil was rescued. "That's the nature of the golf business these days," says Browning. "It's sad when you put your heart into a piece of property and then not have it played."
Blue Devil (http://www.bluedevilgolf.com) remains open for play this season with greens fees at a reasonable $69.
---
Bruce Dowbiggin grew up in Montreal, lived for a good spell of his working life in Toronto, and moved to Calgary near the beginning of this decade to write a general sports column for the Calgary Herald. He is also a successful author, having published five books including, Meaning of Puck: How Hockey Explains Modern Canada and he's won two Gemini Awards as a sportscaster. Bruce's column on sports media appears exclusively on globesports.com. He can be reached at dowbboy@shaw.ca and on twitter @dowbboy